Bhopal Badshahs down Chandigarh Comets in opener

CHANDIGARH: Bhopal Badshahs beat Chandigarh Comets 4-3 in the inaugural match of the World Series Hockey tournament, at the Sector-42 Hockey Stadium on Wednesday.

Badshahs scored three goals in the last quarter to peg the game back in their favour but it was Laxman Bhaskaran who scored the first goal for the Bhopal team in the sixth minute of the first quarter.

Comets’ Gurjinder Singh equalized in the third minute of the second quarter. In the 11th minute, Jasjit Khullar added one more to go past the visitors.

The third quarter remained a goalless affair. With Comets leading 2-1, the fourth quarter saw two goals being scored in quick succession. The first one came off Badshahs’ Gayle’s blade only to be paid back by Comets’ Gurjinder Singh through a field goal.

With nine minutes left, Bhopal player Affan Yousuf hit a reverse shot from the top of the circle to equalize the score and bring back life into the match.

Two minutes later, Bhaskaran scored the winning goal to put his team into the lead for the first time in the match.

Pakistan player and Comets skipper Rehan Butt was conspicuous by his absence and Aussie Robert Green filled in his place. The four-quarters format (17 minutes each) seemed to have broken the momentum of the game as the game never rose to great heights.

Dull opening ceremony

Earlier, the opening ceremony of WSH failed to deliver to the promise it made in the run-up to the event. It turned out to be a mere song and dance affair with a sprinkling of Bollywood stars in between.

Singer Mika and Harshdeep Kaur tried to touch the chord with some folk songs. Predictably, Mika started off with ‘Singh is King’ and carried on in his inimitable style. Kaur, with her humming voice, drew applause as she sang ‘Katiya Karun’.

Saif Ali Khan made a brief appearance before reeling off the WSH promotional stuff. Neha Dhupia donned the avatar of item girl and danced to the tunes of ‘Chammak Challo’ and ‘Kolaveri Di’. Though the performers and event managers tried to capture the Punjabi spirit with some bhangra beats and